The Psychology of Safety: Which Qualities Indicate Risk-Takers

Forklifts and other material handling equipment can be extremely dangerous. Sitting on its own, turned off in a factory without a human to operate it, the danger goes from ten to zero. There are programs popping up around the country to study the psychology of workplace safety. What does psychology have to do with it? Pyschology is the study of of the mind and behavior. It’s an applied science. Take a forklift and add a human operator to the equation; You’ve got a mind, behavoir, and one heavy piece of equipment. So what can you look for in an operator, or any employee dealing with risk? Let’s have a look: